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Thursday, September 10, 2015

{pretty, happy, funny, real} daily bread

| a weekly capturing the contentment in everyday life |

I'm still not sleeping well, but Brian and I aren't fighting much at all any more. We even like each other again and think we might make it to our 25th anniversary in November. Even though we don't know much of our future yet, there is a hope that it will be together. As the Seder song teaches us to pray: "it would be enough".

I am intending before the Father, Son and Spirit, before my tribe, and before you, dear reader, to take each glimpse of what and who and where our future becomes as a morsel of manna. To receive it as enough, resist the urge to hoard up piles of glimpses and plans that will surely spoil just as that sweet bread did in the wilderness. I will receive the daily provision of the Father as enough. And trust that tomorrow there will be enough again. Because our Father is good and does not give his children stones when they ask for bread. He gives enough in the right time.

So we are not feasting on dreams and plans here, but we are fed with hope and little glimmers of ideas and sweet encouragement from God's people.

I walked through a few puddles around the neighborhood today after last night's rain (blessed, blessed returning rain!) and it struck me as I pondered manna and long-awaited rainfall that this is probably the essence of Ordinary Time. We are fed with our daily bread. It's one of thefirst great lessons we learned and newlyweds, and it's been our theme for almost 25 years, thanks be to God.

It is good and it is enough.

Here's a few snapshots of contentment the past week.

| pretty |

gift eggs

Brian brought this goodness home from work on Tuesday. A sweet woman dropped them off during Ladies' Bible Study. Almost too pretty for breakfast -- but not quite.

| happy |

a few happy gifts during a disappointing week

While we get our bearings in the middle of some uncertainty, I'm so grateful for sweet gifts. 1. Friday night candle-lit Scrabble, antipasto and wine2. Saturday morning coffee on the patio at Thunderbird Cafe3. Reading nursery rhymes to my niece and nephew on Google hangout. It was basically an excuse to look at Richard Scarry illustrations.

| funny |

office pranks

So I have this mug I purchased at Goodwill. It sits on my desk and makes me happy with it's sunshiny yellow. I was gone for a bit and came back to the scene of a coffee mug hostage crisis thanks to a couple of rather clever pranksters. Honestly, I might have sat at my desk for a whole week or more without ever realizing that thing was actually hanging over my head. Well played, friends. Well played.

| real|

Texas unfiltered

This is kind of funny, too. On Saturday, with a whole day free, I got it in my head that we should drive to San Marcos to the mega, gigantic, infamous retail outlet complex I'd heard so much about. Now, it's taken me four years to even consider this sort of endeavour, but on a recent trip through the Austin airport some kind soul welcomed us back home by stealing our extra-large, crammed-full-of-most-of-our-worldly-possesions suitcase. We're not exactly closet wealthy, so a week's trip means the majority of our good clothing and personal items were in that suitcase. Anyway, long story short, outlet shopping seemed a proper way to see the sights and replenish our wardrobes. Long story shorter: we drove in bumper-to-bumper traffic on I-35 for close to an hour in 100+-degree heat with the sputtering air conditioning in our secondary vehicle (since our daughter had our better vehicle on a road trip to visit her sister). We crawled inch by inch through the chaotic parking lot of the outlet arcade finding no parking, no shade and, unbelievably unhappy people. Well, we did the only natural thing to do in that sort of situation and headed right back out the exit to the nearest country route we could find. We ended up discovering an off-off road thrift sale in a 75-year-old deaf man's yard. His name was Ernie, and he told us he felt it was time to start letting go of his life-long habit of collecting old things. We stood and sweated in his yard and his garage, looking through his things. Then I took this picture, and we ran back to our air conditioning and sped on down the road. This, my friends, is my kind of shopping day. I'll have to figure out another way to clothe ourselves.

Have you captured any contentment this week?

I'd love to hear about it!

| Join in at P,H,F,R to see other wonderful people practicing contentment. |

Tamara Hill Murphy

I am Tamara Murphy: born and raised in a cynical, smalltown Northeast still harboring a penchant for hope and big ideas. Now I live in the bright city of Austin, Texas with my audacious and often-homesick family: two daughters, two sons, one husband.

I believe in the power of the written word. I read and write words to make friends with the ancient, present and future. I write to encourage both you and me to see God's presence through daily practices of art, liturgy and relationship.